Nutri-Score, “multiple traffic lights” and nutritional labeling to choose healthier “snacks”

Apr 03, 2020
Sébastien Bouley

In this study, an online experiment with Swiss consumers (N = 1313) was conducted to compare the effects of different formats of nutrition labels on consumers’ assessment of the safety of snacks.
Participants were asked to select the healthiest option from 105 paired comparisons of 15 savory snacks. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five conditions:

the Front Of Packaging presented (1) the nutrition facts table,
(2) the multiple traffic light (MTL),
(3) the Nutri-Score,
(4) the Nutri-Score on half of the products,
or (5) no nutritional information (control).

Consumer ratings of snack safety were fairly accurate, even without receiving nutritional information on the package. The Nutri-Score led to the highest accuracy in the healthiest between two snacks (when using the British FSA / Ofcom nutrient profiling score to determine the safety of the product).
However, this has no minimal effect on the assessment when only certain products have been labeled. This indicates that for maximum effectiveness, labeling of all available products is necessary.

To know more, you can consult the study.

Orchidali can help you conduct bibliometric analyzes of scientific literature.